Sunday, August 23, 2009

Apartheid Museum - Women’s Day

On the 9th of August 1956, 20,000 South African women of all races marched on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to protest the proposed amendments to the Urban Areas Act, commonly known as the Pass Laws of 1950 – legislation that required ‘non-whites’ to carry a document known as the Dom Pas which would allow them to move around, or live in ‘White South Africa’. The women stood together, arms raised in the air in the clenched fist of the Congress Salute and sang "You strike a woman, you strike a rock". It is remembered as one of the major milestones in the struggle against the apartheid regime and the date is now commemorated as Women’s Day.